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Colorado first state in country to finalize rules for recreational pot

A bag of free marijuana joints were handed out during a rally at Denver Civic Center Park, September 09, 2013. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)

In 136 small-type pages, Colorado this week became the first state in the country to adopt final rules for recreational marijuana businesses.

The rules, released late Monday, cover everything from pot shop licensing to inventory tracking to marijuana packaging to advertising. They also represent the most comprehensive effort to date to take the once all-illegal marijuana market and harness it into what supporters say will be controlled, refined legitimacy.

Colorado Pot Rules

Applications to open a recreational marijuana store can be filed starting in only three weeks. The first stores are expected to open around Jan.1, 2014.

"These rules are designed not to make the operation of Retail Marijuana Establishments unreasonably impracticable, but also promote public safety and ensure compliance with constitutional and statutory guidelines," the Colorado Department of Revenue, which will oversee the industry, wrote in a cover letter to the rules. "...[T]hese rules accomplish the state of Colorado's guiding principle through this process: to create a robust regulatory and enforcement environment that protects public safety and prevents diversion of Retail Marijuana to individuals under the age of 21 or to individuals outside the state of Colorado."

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The rules changed little from their draft form, but the final version provides crucial certainty for would-be marijuana entrepreneurs.

Among the highlights of the rules:

• All marijuana stores, cultivation facilities and marijuana-infused products makers must be licensed and pay fees ranging from $2,750 to $14,000.

• Until October 2014, recreational marijuana stores must grow themselves almost all the pot they sell.

• All businesses must use the state's forthcoming online inventory tracking program to document their marijuana's journey from cultivation to processing to sale.

• Businesses must follow extensive security requirements, including having a surveillance camera that can document marijuana sales and "the customer(s) and employee(s) facial features with sufficient clarity to determine identity."

• Marijuana must be placed into opaque, child-resistant packages before leaving the store. The packages must also contain a label that lists the pot's potency and any non-organic pesticides or fungicides used in its cultivation.

• Marijuana stores cannot advertise in places where kids will likely see it, including on television, on the radio or in newspapers where there is "reliable evidence" that "more than 30 percent of the audience ... is reasonably expected to be under the age of 21."

• Marijuana businesses are subject to an audit or inspection by the state Marijuana Enforcement Division at any time.

The executive director of the Department of Revenue, Barbara Brohl, said in a statement that the rules will ensure Colorado does not run afoul of the federal government. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice said it would not interfere in Colorado's or Washington state's legalization of marijuana, so long as the states create tight rules to keep pot away from kids and criminal gangs and out of neighboring states.

Ron Kammerzell, the department's deputy senior director of enforcement, said the rules will provide clear guidelines for both pot shops and pot cops.

"Good regulation not only needs to be easy to understand, it must also provide authorities the ability to enforce the regulation in a fair and transparent manner," Kammerzell said in a statement.

Officials in Washington are writing rules for their recreational marijuana industry, and are expecting to finish the task in October.

John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/john_ingold

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